Chapter 60: The Last Straw
There is a proverb in the West: "Thelaststrawtahtbreaksacamel'sback." Translated into Chinese, it is: "The last straw that broke the camel's back." At this time, both sides of the Pengcheng war are like a camel, the pressure exerted on them has reached the extreme, at this time, as long as either side has reinforcements coming, there is no need for more, more than 100 people are enough, which side will win, and the other side will be crushed by this last straw. At this time, neither side knew that there happened to be a straw heading towards Pengcheng.
At a distance of 50 miles outside Pengcheng, a team of more than 200 people was rushing towards Pengcheng, and the leader of this team was the leader of Zhongwu County's doorman who had crossed paths with Zhao Jie, and Fan Se, who had entrusted Xiang Peng to Zhao Jie. When Zhao Jie told Fan Se and the others that the death of the county guard was related to Xiang Partridge, Fan Se and the others instantly understood the crisis of their people. Escaping from Zhongwu County and preserving yourself for the return of your son in the future has become a top priority at that critical moment. So at that time, they quickly made a decision - to go north to Pengcheng. In order to prevent leakage of information, they claimed to go into the mountains to suppress bandits and avenge the county guards, but only a dozen or so people led by them understood that they had actually fled from Zhonggo County.
Xushan is located between Zhongwu County and Pengcheng County, which is the boundary between the northern administrative areas of the two counties. When they were about to arrive at Xushan, the crisis had quietly descended, and the sentinels sent to detect a secret team sneaking around 20 miles from their camp, not knowing what to do. Fan Se speculated that these people were Xiang Partridge's cronies, so a dozen elder-like figures discussed, and Fan Se immediately proposed to quickly enter Pengcheng County, which was approved by everyone. In order to facilitate the transfer, Fanser told all the guests and people the truth. Feeling the grace of the former county guard, most people swore to follow each other and chose not to give up. With the concerted efforts of everyone, the team quickly turned around and quickly stepped into Pengcheng County.
Fanser's proposal has to be said to be a risky decision. In recent years, due to the absence of the government's rule and management, the northeastern part of Pengcheng, that is, the area of Xushan, has completely become a den of thieves. Those who pass through this place are often killed by thieves, and their bones are gone. Xiang Hu's cronies didn't dare to joke with their lives, so they stopped on the border one after another, not daring to go west. For Fan Se and the others, the west direction has become their only choice to survive, and they have lost everything and have nothing to lose anymore.
Perhaps God favored them, and the time they entered the northeast of Pengcheng was the same time when the Xu brothers sent troops to Pengcheng, and along the way, not only were they not attacked by bandits, but they destroyed several bandit strongholds along the way, which were already empty. It wasn't until they were about to arrive at Pengcheng that they met the knights sent by Song Yu to ask for help, that Fanser understood everything, so Fanser quickly mobilized his men and horses and galloped towards Pengcheng.
Although the distance of 50 miles was instantaneous, the cautious Fanser did not dare to hold it up. As a precaution, he spread out sentry sentry and slowed down the march, and along the way, he collected the Pengcheng sergeants in the forts along the way. The cavalry of more than 200 people marched on the land, and naturally could not escape the detection of the elite sentinels of Peng Shen, Peng Yu, and Peng Dou, and it didn't take long for the three Peng brothers to learn of the existence of this team. After an urgent mobilization of men, the three Peng brothers led 100 sentinels to meet Fanse's men and horses at a distance of 30 miles from Pengcheng.
"Break through the enemy formation, and leave no one behind." Without hesitation, Vance gave the order. Most of the people led by Fan Se have martial arts, few have not experienced the experience of war, some people can even be on the battlefield alone, with an order, everyone is not angry and self-assured, although there are only more than 200 people, but it instantly makes people feel that there are thousands of troops. The three Peng brothers looked at each other's formation, and immediately understood that these people could not be defeated by themselves.
The 200 cavalry rushed towards the array of the three Peng brothers, and for the first time felt fear. Every time they got closer, the pressure on the three Peng brothers increased. When the two sides were about to collide, the three Peng brothers could no longer withstand the pressure in their hearts, turned around and ran away, shouting to their subordinates continuously: "Retreat!" ”
Hearing the shouts of the leader, the soldiers who had formed a formation to resist instantly broke down and fled in all directions. Fan Se was about to chase, but was stopped by the soldiers sent by Song Yu for help: "General, don't worry about these frightened soldiers, the situation in Pengcheng is not optimistic now, please rescue quickly." ”
The rout of the three Peng brothers led to the rout of the five Xu brothers to a certain extent, especially the three Peng brothers who were entrusted with the big did not tell Wang Jian and others who were besieging the city in time about the arrival of the defenders' reinforcements, which made the five Xu brothers and Wang Jian be beaten off guard.
At four o'clock, Fan Seer led 200 men and finally arrived in Pengcheng. Since the soldiers who asked for help did not know the development of the battle, he still thought that there were no enemy troops in Xicheng, so he first brought Fanser to Xicheng, preparing to bring reinforcements into the city from Xicheng. Amidst the shouts of killing, Fanse's men and horses crossed the deep forest path and reached the western city wall.
When Fan Se's men and horses suddenly walked out of the deep forest one after another, Zhao Jie, Wang Jian and others were stunned, and the men and horses who were fighting in the city and under the city stopped instantly. No one knew where these centaurs came from, and no one did not understand the influence of these centaurs on the battle situation, for a while, all the centaurs on both sides unconsciously looked at Fanse's centaurs, forgetting about the battle, everyone was waiting, waiting for the comer to declare the camp they belonged to, waiting for the comer to judge the death penalty of the opposing camp.
In everyone's sight, Fanse's men and horses walked out of the forest one after another, and the short time seemed to everyone to be as long as a lifetime, Zhao Jie tightly grasped the reins of the horse, Zhao Mu tightly held the long sword in his hand, Wang Jian held the city wall tightly, without exception, their hands couldn't help but shed cold sweat. Fanser looked at everything in front of him, and instantly understood everything: the two sides seemed to be in a tie, and his own centaurs would be the decisive outcome of the battle.
"Little brother, shout, everyone is waiting for you?" Fanser said to the soldiers calling for help.
In everyone's eyes, this soldier who has not left a name in history, but has been circulating in people's mouths, slowly walked out of the array, his voice was not strong, but it was very loud: "Those who offend my Pengcheng will be punished even if they are strong." The voice spread all over the city, and the defenders who were inferior in this place instantly burst out with powerful combat effectiveness, while Wang Qian's subordinates instantly lost confidence, and this time the defenders had the upper hand for a while.
"Kill! Not a single one to stay! Zhao Jie shouted the order and rushed towards the Qin army without hesitation, at this time, there were only more than 20 people left around him, such as Zhao Mu, Zhao Yin, Gao Le, and Xu Yang, and the Qin army on the other side was only a dozen people left after a fight.
"Kill! Not a single one to stay! Peng Zhen in the city also shouted orders, leading his men to rush towards the enemy one after another, and the enemy retreated again and again under such a fierce and fearless impact.
"Kill! Not a single one to stay! Fan Se was no exception shouting orders, and rushed towards the Qin army that was fighting against Zhao Jie and the others.
Seeing that morale had declined, the advantage was gone, and the defeat was decided, Wang Jian immediately sounded the horn in his hand. As a result, the surviving siege soldiers gathered towards the place where Wang Jian was, and the Qin army under the city also fled to the city gate.
Wang Jian did not choose to flee for his life out of the city, because he knew that if this was the case, the more than 200 reinforcements outside the city would definitely be wiped out. He led the remaining more than 200 people into the city, and there was no stopping Wang Qian's soldiers in the city, they burned and looted all the way, destroyed many houses and buildings, robbed countless property, and the defeated soldiers completely broke out the devilish side of human nature. Peng Zhen stayed in Xicheng to clean up the battlefield, while Zhao Jie and Fan Se's combined army followed closely behind, but the winding structure of the city roads made their pursuit seem ineffective, and they could only kill some enemy troops who fell behind, and could not form a siege on Wang Qian's team at all, so there was no way to talk about annihilation.
At the end of the day, Wang Jian and his party fled to Dongcheng. At this time, the battle on the walls of the eastern city was still inextricable, after a day and a night of fighting, it was almost to the end, both sides sent the last troops, if the reinforcements of Van Se did not arrive, the war was estimated to end at nightfall, but the outcome was difficult to predict. In order to block the enemy's attack, Song Yu only left a dozen people to guard the city gate, and the rest were all transferred to the city to fight. Naturally, more than a dozen people couldn't stop Wang Qian, and Wang Jian opened the city gate and escaped from Pengcheng, and successfully joined the three Xu brothers.
At the moment of Shen, the five Xu brothers were unwilling to lead the troops to withdraw from Pengcheng, and Song Yu took advantage of the victory to pursue. At three o'clock in the Shen period, Song Yu returned to Pengcheng, and the battle of Pengcheng ended.
This battle took three days, it was not a national war, it was just a battle between the government and the bandits, the scale was not worth mentioning in all the wars of the Warring States, and there was no classic use of strategy during the period, in short, he was just an ordinary war in history that could not be more ordinary, so the descendants did not record it in the history books. Although it is not well known, he has become the eternal memory of Song Yu and others, the common memory in the hearts of several generations of Pengcheng people, and the source of belief for generations of Pengcheng people to defend their families.